- FinalSpark’s AI biocomputers operate at 100,000 times the efficiency of silicon-based systems.
- Organic AI biocomputers by FinalSpark have a lifespan of 100 days.
- Rental human brain cell-powered AI access is now available for $500/month.
A Swiss technological firm, FinalSpark has introduced a service that provides scientists with biocomputers derived from human brain cells, which are hosted in clouds and cost $500 per month.
This new technique offers a low-cost training tool for non-deep learning-based AI models, which should make the most of the power of AI with less energy demand, as solutions based on deep learning do.
Advancing AI with Biocomputers
FinalSpark is a biocomputer created from organoids, or clusters of human brain cells, and it is functional for up to 100 days. These biocomputers, pointed out by Fred Jordan, the founder of FinalSpark, can be 100,000 times that of today’s conventional silicon-based systems.
Much of this considerable increase in efficiency, it must be stressed, is due to the use of organic materials, which allow information processing to occur more parsimoniously.
Training Techniques for Organic AI
While conventional AI training focuses on numerical values and reinforcement learning, training based on organoids involves biological activities. Scientists first employ dopamine in positive reinforcement in the way that rewards promote learning within the human brain, and electrical signals are used in negative reinforcement.
This approach is more realistic than the previous one and is closer to principles worked out by scientists in neuroscience. However, these biocomputers have raw potential for innovation because of fundamental challenges related to their lifetime.
Each organoid can run at an optimal level for a little over three months, after which the output quality deteriorates so that the AI system has to be migrated to a new set of brain cells.
This cycle brings issues concerning the sustainability of long-term AI projects, but it also raises questions about the possibility of prolonging the life cycle of such dynamic and organic systems in the future.
Sustainable and Efficient AI Development
The biocomputer technology offered by FinalSpark will not only help cut costs on the development of artificial intelligence but will also help reduce the load of extensive computation that adds to environmental pollution.
Using human brain cells, the company aims to create new precedents for the further evolution of AI and, maybe, create something that will have the same lifespan as human beings. It closes the gap between biological and artificial intelligence, an indication that a future is possible where AI will be sustainable and in touch with humanism.
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